A Novel AMARS Technique for Baseline Wander Removal Applied to Photoplethysmogram

IEEE Trans Biomed Circuits Syst. 2017 Jun;11(3):627-639. doi: 10.1109/TBCAS.2017.2649940. Epub 2017 May 19.

Abstract

A new digital filter, AMARS (aligning minima of alternating random signal) has been derived using trigonometry to regulate signal pulsations inline. The pulses are randomly presented in continuous signals comprising frequency band lower than the signal's mean rate. Frequency selective filters are conventionally employed to reject frequencies undesired by specific applications. However, these conventional filters only reduce the effects of the rejected range producing a signal superimposed by some baseline wander (BW). In this work, filters of different ranges and techniques were independently configured to preprocess a photoplethysmogram, an optical biosignal of blood volume dynamics, producing wave shapes with several BWs. The AMARS application effectively removed the encountered BWs to assemble similarly aligned trends. The removal implementation was found repeatable in both ear and finger photoplethysmograms, emphasizing the importance of BW removal in biosignal processing in retaining its structural, functional and physiological properties. We also believe that AMARS may be relevant to other biological and continuous signals modulated by similar types of baseline volatility.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Humans
  • Plethysmography*
  • Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted*